“Our oil is our gold,” ADNOC’s upstream executive director Abdulmunim al-Kindyal-Kindy said in an interview during the ADIPEC 2019 oil and gas conference in Abu Dhabi. “With the reserves we have, the challenge we have is monetizing it at the right time.”
However, current conditions are such that the successful monetization of “black gold” requires a scrupulous approach to refining, especially to the upgrading of oil residues.
On December 10-11, 2019 in Bahrain, Euro Petroleum Consultants will hold BBTC MENA 2019 – Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference which is dedicated to optimum solutions for residue upgrading.
As in previous years, the conference is held under the patronage of H.E. Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Minister of Oil, and with the support of the National Oil & Gas Authority (NOGA) and the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) as Principal Sponsor.
H.E. Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Oil, opening BBTC MENA 2018
Bahrain was not randomly selected as the venue for this conference - the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) is actively modernizing its only refinery in Sitra. The company launched the Bapco Modernization Programme (BMP), which includes a reduction in the output of fuel oil to 7% vol. from 15-16% vol. now due to the construction of an ebullated bed residue hydrocracking unit using LC-Fining technology licensed from Chevron Lummus Global. The Sitra modernization project is to be completed in 2022, and Hafedh Al-Qassab, BMP Project Director, will present on project scope and status.
Continuing the theme of deep conversion projects in the Middle East, SATORP representatives will share their experiences: Mariano Del Pozo, Technical Manager, will present how turn refinery units for profitable residue processing, and Essam Al Otaibi, Utilities Operations Superintendent, will present on maximization delayed coking unit (DCU) liquid yields from Arabian Heavy feedstock.
Mariano Del Pozo, Technical Manager from SATORP, presenting at BBTC-MENA 2018
Delayed coking continues to be the most popular residue upgrading process and the latest innovations of this technology will be covered by Karoly Ott, Innovation Manager from Hungary’s MOL Group, whose presentation will focus on using AI to optimize DCU performance.
There will also be a presentation by Elvin Alıyev, Senior Process Engineer from STAR refinery, SOCAR Turkey, on the advantages and importance of residue upgrading in a greenfield refinery. The opening ceremony of STAR took place on October 19, 2018, it is the largest new refinery to start up in Europe since decades and Turkey’s first in 30 years. The core unit, that is responsible for residue upgrading at the refinery, is a 40,000 bpsd DCU using SYDEC technology licensed by Wood and that is able to produce 700 ktpa of petroleum coke.
Flexicoking, another thermal process of residue upgrading, will be covered by the presentation of Martin de Wit, FLEXICOKING Technical Sales Manager from ESSO NEDERLAND B.V. The presentation will focus on the use of flexicoking to solve the IMO 2020 challenge and for crude to chemicals integration.
Back to the Middle East. In 2018, Iraq became the regional leader in terms of refining growth, having increased the capacity of its refineries by 80,000 bpsd. In this regard, the report of Sattar Jalil Hussein, Chief Engineer from Iraqi Ministry of Oil - Petroleum R&D Center, will be interesting - it is dedicated to an overview of the Iraqi refining Industry and future plans for fuel oil handling.
Participants of the roundtable at BBTC-MENA 2018
In addition to thermal processes, the conference will also focus on catalytic solutions. For instance, Stephane Morin, Manager Experimental R&D from ADNOC Refining Research Centre, will present how to boost the performance of hydrocracker through an efficient catalyst selection, and Feifei Huang, Technologist – Middle Distillates & Conversion Business Line from Axens, will present on Axens’ hydrocracking solutions for refining and petrochemicals production. In addition, Gary Brierley, Project Development Manager for Heavy Oil from Honeywell UOP, will present on how the refinery configuration can be optimized using solvent deasphalting and Unicracking technologies.
Given BMP’s concept, for the conference hosts from Bapco, presentations on solutions for ebullated bed residue upgrading and hydrogen manufacturing technologies will be interesting. Jeffrey Gendler, Vice President, Business Development & Licensing from HTI, will present on HCAT technology application to enhance high conversion in ebullated beds, and Alexander Benöhr, Director, Marketing & Strategy, World Business Line Large Industries from Air Liquide, and Matt Pitcher, Technology Manager Hydrogen from TechnipFMC, will provide their presentations on innovations in hydrogen.
For ebullated bed processes, management of unconverted residue is of great importance, and Samiya Parvez, Process Engineer from Fluor, will share her observations, when Scott Kendrick, Director from Crystaphase, will highlight another aspect that is important for this process - filtration. Also, Marvin Petit-Homme, Sales Manager from IPCO, will cover the management of unconverted materials in his presentation about forming and handling of bulk carbon-rich residue.
Scott Kendrick, Director, and Crystaphase’s booth at BBTC-MENA 2018
Deep conversion processes take place at high temperatures and are characterized by high energy consumption; therefore, a special conference section will be devoted to the latest solutions for temperature control and energy efficiency. Mike Bennett, Director of Technology from Gaysco WIKA will present on world class test facility for furnace and reactors, Stefano Mella, Product Manager from Enderess+Hauser, will present on advanced multipoint temperature measurement and profiling technology, Khaled Abdellatif, Technology Manager MENA from Daily Thermetrics, will present on temperature measurements inside catalytic reactors and Martin Gough, Managing Director from Calgavin, will present on optimization of production and profit improvement within a preheat train.
To find out more about modern bottom of the barrel technologies, don't miss Euro Petroleum Consultants’ BBTC MENA 2019 - Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference which will be held on December 10-11, 2019 in Bahrain.
Euro Petroleum Consultants is a technical oil and gas consultancy with offices in Dubai, London, Moscow, Sofia and Kuala Lumpur. Euro Petroleum Consultants also organises leading conferences worldwide.